


The Other Guy

by MusicalLuna



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Based on a Tumblr Post, CA: TWS Tag, Heartbroken!Tony, Jealousy, M/M, Misunderstanding, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Tag, This Story Has Nothing to Do With Bruce or the Hulk Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-29
Updated: 2014-07-29
Packaged: 2018-09-17 19:39:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9340169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicalLuna/pseuds/MusicalLuna
Summary: “I guess the big thing is Bucky,” Steve murmurs. His focus drifts.“Your friend from before?” Tony says. He’s mentioned him once or twice, always reluctant, always with this air of guilt and grief. The biggest loss of his life, Tony thinks.Steve nods and meets his eyes. “He’s alive, Tony.”





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nightwalker](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightwalker/gifts).



> via onemuseleft on Tumblr: Bucky turns up alive so Tony assumes he and Steve are going to get together and tries to be all supportive and understanding but really his heart is breaking. Steve gets all protective and reassuring when he finds out even though he’s actually pretty pissed off.
> 
> Bucky just laughs, because seriously, he could learn to like anyone that makes Steve that nuts.
> 
> There aren’t enough fics like that. I think we need fifty or sixty more.

Steve sits him down hardly twenty minutes after he gets to DC, in the living room of some guy named Sam. Tony gets a sinking feeling in his stomach that he obstinately ignores. He jerks a thumb over his shoulder. “Who’s this guy?”

“A friend,” Steve says. “I met him three days ago.”

Anyone else and Tony would assume they were joking. Steve, of course, is not.

He’s serious and somber, the expression underscored by the green and yellow bruising on his right cheekbone, the slight swelling of his eye. The stitches in the gash to the left of his mouth are terrifying. Tony never wants to let him out of his sight again. They’d fought for nearly two hours in New York and Steve hadn’t looked half this bad.

“You want some coffee?” the guy—Sam—asks, poking his head around the kitchen doorjamb.

“Sure?” Tony says, because what else is he going to say?

This is surreal. Like, Dali surreal. Pepper would be impressed by that reference.

“I have a lot to tell you,” Steve says when Sam dips back into the kitchen.

“Okay,” Tony says, resisting the urge to reach for Steve’s hand. He waits a beat and then says more fervently than he intended, “What the hell happened?”

Steve tilts his head and looks up at Tony with a wry quirk of his lips. “That’s the million dollar question.”

“Ugh, god, just tell me,” Tony groans, head rolling on his neck. He’s tired of the tension, the weight of not knowing what it is Steve is creeping toward saying.

Steve’s face crumples a little and he looks down at his feet. “Sorry. I’m sorry, Tony, I’m not trying to be difficult. It’s just—a lot happened.”

“So tell me about it.”

“I guess the big thing is Bucky,” Steve murmurs. His focus drifts.

“Your friend from before?” Tony says. He’s mentioned him once or twice, always reluctant, always with this air of guilt and grief. The biggest loss of his life, Tony thinks.

Steve nods and meets his eyes. “He’s alive, Tony.”

Tony swallows, feeling his heart slide down the back of the arc reactor to sit heavy in his stomach. “Oh. That’s…”

“He was tortured during the war. Experimented on. I guess when he fell off that bridge—” Steve’s voice hitches. “I guess whatever they did to him kept him alive. Hydra turned him into their enforcer. He doesn’t remember me, yet. But he didn’t kill me when he could have, so I know he’s in there somewhere. I have to find him, Tony. I have to get him back. Bucky…Bucky was all I had when I had nothing.”

“Right,” Tony says. Okay. So. They’re…they’re done. Bucky’s back and Steve’s going to fix him and they’re going to live happily ever after and Tony…Tony will bow out gracefully because it was never going to last, he knew it wasn’t, it was just a matter of time, so it shouldn’t be a surprise. Wow, it hurts a hell of a lot more than he expected it to.

Steve reaches out to take his hand and Tony covers his mouth, stares hard at the carpet and wills himself not to break down here. He squeezes Steve’s hand because the guy’s obviously reeling and looking for comfort and no matter how bad it hurts Tony, he can’t deny him that.

“It’s gonna be fine, Steve,” he whispers. “We’ll find him and you’ll bring him around. Nobody’s bad enough to stay that way with you in their corner.” He smiles, shaky though it is and Steve looks up at him. The raw desperation on his face is painful to see.

“You think?” he says, pleading with Tony to make it true.

“Yeah,” Tony says, and reaches to stroke the back of Steve’s neck, just one more time. “Absolutely.”

 

~ * ~

 

It takes them a month of relentless searching to track down Bucky.

Tony works until he drops, using every spare minute to tweak JARVIS’ search parameters and narrow their fields. Steve stays up for five days straight the first week and then crashes so hard he sleeps for a solid twenty-four hours. After that he makes sure to take an hour out of every day to nap. He’s still not operating anywhere near peak, but it gets him through.

And, eventually, their hard work pays off; Tony finds him.

“Here,” he says, struggling to push the word out because he’s used up every last ounce of his energy reserves and breathing deep enough to speak is a Herculean effort. He presses a Stark phone into Steve’s hand. “Go. Everything you need’s here.”

Steve reaches up to cup his face and, thankfully, Tony’s too exhausted to flinch. “Thank you,” Steve says, locking eyes with him. Tony’s throat constricts. He’s not ready for this loss. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t get in too deep with Steve, that he wouldn’t tie himself to a sinking ship. Looks like he screwed that up, too.

Steve ducks down to press a farewell kiss to his mouth and Tony very nearly whimpers.

 _Don’t go,_ he thinks. _Pick me._

But Steve goes.

Tony drags himself over to the couch in the corner and collapses. He pulls a cushion over his head and cries himself to sleep.

 

~ * ~

 

Steve brings Bucky back to the Tower. That smarts a little.

Tony’s not sure what the hell he expected, it’s not like Steve has anywhere else to go and Bucky sure as hell doesn’t. But it still feels like a knife in his back.

Bucky’s dirty, hair stringy with grease and filth—he’s obviously been living on the streets. His face is fixed in a frown, black smudged eyes flicking to follow the slightest movements. Steve stands within arm’s length, eyes watchful, but hands carefully kept away from Bucky’s body. There are bruises on Steve’s forearms.

Tony watches Steve introduce him to the other Avengers from the doorway. He starts when Bucky’s gaze meets his from across the room and freezes.

Bucky stares, unblinking.

Tony looks back until he can’t take it anymore. He breaks, swallowing convulsively, and tucks tail and runs back to the lab.

He’s there trying to work on something, anything to distract himself, when JARVIS murmurs, “Sir, Captain Rogers is asking for permission to enter. He wishes to introduce you to Lieutenant Barnes.”

“Okay. Okay, you can do this, Stark. You knew this was coming,” he says to himself and scrubs his hands over his face. “Okay.” He shakes himself and stands up. “Let ‘em in, J.”

His fingers tighten around the screwdriver in his hand as Steve and Bucky come into view. Bucky’s eyes find him first, his gaze sharp, assessing.

“Tony,” Steve says, and there’s a note in his voice that makes Tony’s chest ache. He leans in for a kiss and Tony turns his head.

“What are you doing, Steve?” he asks and his voice comes out lower and rougher than he means for it to. He can feel Steve’s confusion.

“I was going to—”

“Don’t,” Tony says, all his plans to be mature flying out the window with Steve here in front of him again. “God, don’t do this, please, Steve, just do the Band-Aid thing and get it over with.”

Steve leans back and Tony stares hard at the floor. “Tony…what are you talking about?”

“You know,” Tony mutters, accusing.

“No,” Steve says slowly, “clearly, I don’t.”

Tony lifts his head and points at Bucky with his chin. The guy’s still staring. “Him. You’ve got him back now and we’ve had some fun and it was a great time, thanks, you don’t have to let me down easy. I’m a big boy.”

There’s a beat of silence. Then Steve’s hands tighten on his shoulders and he says, “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

Tony looks up at that, angry at Steve’s newly-revealed callousness, and he _hates_ the tears he can feel pricking at the corners of his eyes.

Steve is staring at him, a furrow digging in deep between his eyes. “Are you out of your goddamned mind, Tony? Bucky and I— We’re not—we were _never_.”

“Look, I’m trying to do the adult thing here, and be supportive,” Tony snaps, and swipes at his nose, trying to ignore the tickle of moisture.

“You _idiot,”_ Steve says, and his big hands wrap around Tony’s neck and the juncture of his shoulder before he can react, and Steve pulls him in for a kiss. Tony clings to him. When Steve pulls their mouths apart, it’s just far enough to breathe between kisses laid at the corner of Tony’s mouth, his cheeks, his jaw, his nose. “You stupid—infuriating—son of a _—bitch._ I oughta— _“_

Tony is afraid to let himself hope. “So, you…”

Steve growls and squeezes the back of his neck. “I’m with _you_ , Tony. I’m yours, as long as you’ll have me. At least, so long as you’re not stupid enough to throw it all away.”

The laugh that bubbles out of Tony’s throat is a little wet and strangled. “If you keep calling me stupid, I’m going to get a complex.”

“You already have a complex,” Steve replies.

“I only remember bits and pieces,” Bucky pipes up and Tony almost flushes at the realization that he’s been standing there the entire time, “but I remember enough to know that being with him—” He points at Steve. “—would gross me out. Think I’d like you with him okay though.”

“That’s the jerk I know,” Steve says, and sounds intensely fond, and proud. He pulls Tony up against him and kisses his temple; murmurs, “And this’s the dummy I love.”

Tony does blush now.


End file.
